Tajani warns against jeopardy in migrant crisis resolution

“This European Council meeting will be remembered for a long time, but we cannot yet say whether it will be remembered as a success or a failure. That will depend on us, on the responses we offer to our fellow citizens’ most pressing concerns, in particular those linked to the migration crisis which is putting our cooperation arrangements and our determination to work together to a serious test” – European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said, addressing international press in Brussels at the margins of the EU Summit on Migration (#EUCO).

“The issue is a complex one, and it poses a particularly daunting challenge, given the contrasting national interests at stake: nobody is unaware of this problem, least of all the public” -president continued.

“However, our fellow citizens are looking to the European Union to do what it was primarily set up to do, namely to find common solutions to common problems, not least (and in particular!) when national interests diverge.”

“There surely cannot be a single EU citizen anywhere who does not want us to come up with a common solution. Unilateral solutions are by definition partial solutions, and therefore ineffective, not to say dangerous.”

“If the ‘every country for itself’ approach prevails, the Schengen system will not be the only thing which is in jeopardy: the very credibility of our common project will be dealt a body blow from which it will be difficult to recover.”

The future of the European Union depends on the answers that the EU leaders are able to provide to migration challenges. #EUCOWatch my remarks to the press ⤵ https://t.co/9za9MEMb3m